‘Whoomp!’ Here it is: a $2M jury award

A Texas jury awarded more than $2 million to a record label executive responsible for bringing the hit “Whoomp! (There It Is)” to the airwaves and sporting arenas nearly two decades ago.

The jury award followed Monday’s decision by a Texas judge that Alvertis Isbell is the rightful owner of the catchy musical composition, which was recorded by the group Tag Team in 1993.

The ruling requires DM Records, which had maintained that it bought the composition as part of a bankruptcy sale in 1999, to compensate Isbell for actual and statutory damages.

The jury decision followed a three-week trial that ended with Judge Richard Schell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruling that DM Records could not demonstrate that it owned the composition.

He sent the matter to the jury to decide the award amounts for Isbell.

Isbell, a songwriter and former label owner known professionally as Al Bell, was represented by Nashville attorney Richard Busch, a partner with the law firm of King & Ballow.

The decision ends a 10-year legal battle that had bounced between federal and bankruptcy courts in Texas and been stalled for some time after Hurricane Katrina as Texas courts worked their way through mountains of claims against the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We have fought long and hard for Al on this. It is very emotional,” Busch said. “We knew from the beginning that these copyrights were taken from him. And we feel not only vindicated by this decision, but we are still very angry that Al has been deprived of his property for all these years while the defendants wrongfully exploited it.”

Richard Wolfe, an attorney for DM Records, said by email, “We will be filing post-trial motions followed by an appeal if necessary.”

Fight lasts decade

According to court records, Isbell sued DM Records after the company began claiming ownership of the Billboard charting songs “Whoomp! (There It Is)” and “Dazzey Duks,” as well as several other compositions Isbell said belonged to his publishing company, Alvert Music.

DM Records, according to court files, said it acquired the compositions from Bellmark Records, another of Isbell’s companies, after it filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

Isbell maintained that while Bellmark transferred the master recordings of the songs to DM Records, it could not have sold the compositions to the company because those properties were owned by Alvert Music, not Bellmark.

Compositions are the more valuable of the two because they’re tied to the sometimes lucrative royalty payments songwriters and publishers receive anytime a song gets played.

Schell found that DM Records could not provide sufficient evidence to prove it had purchased the compositions.

The jury ordered DM Records to pay Isbell just more than $2.1 million in actual damages for copyright infringement related to “(Whoomp!) There It Is.” The company must pay an additional $132,500 in statutory damages related to the willful copyright infringement of “Dazzey Duks.”